Racing an Electric Motorcycle at the Laguna Seca Refuel Track Day

Electric Cars on Grid

When I heard about the Refuel event, a free track day and time trial at Laguna Seca, it was literally a dream come true. I have long been a devoted aficionado of the legendary corkscrew. Laguna Seca has a strict 92 dB sound limit except for major races, like MotoGP. This is due to the fact that some developer was able to trick a lot of golfers and other such genteel folk into buying property and playing a game that requires absolute silence next to a racetrack. So most race cars and motorcycles have to do obscene things to their vehicles in order to pass the sound check, or else go home and forfeit a $300+ track day.

Mitsubishi Says i-MiEV Could Have Sub-$30K Price Tag

Around the world Mitsubishi has announced initial prices for fleet purchasers of their subcompact i-MiEV electric car that range from about $53,000 in Japan to as high as $59,000 in Germany. Given the fact that Nissan will start selling the LEAF EV this fall for $32,780 in the US, it’s clear that Mitsubishi will have [...]

Live: Webchat with GM's Global Electric Vehicle Exec Tomorrow, 4 PM Eastern

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Having just finished up a round of validation and testing of the Chevy Volt’s battery pack—including dunking the thing in water—GM is set to start full battery production at their Brownstown, MI, battery manufacturing facility. In honor of the event, tomorrow, July 14, GM will be discussing a “major consumer initiative” and discussing the details [...]

Fiat 500 Officially Gets 2-Cylinder, 85 HP TwinAir Engine; Achieves 50+ MPG

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As promised earlier this year, Fiat has officially adorned their beloved 500 with a brand new engine option: the 2-cylinder TwinAir. The 85 HP, turbocharged 0.9 liter engine reportedly has the performance characteristics of a much larger 1.4 liter, 16-valve engine, but it consumes about 30% less fuel—resulting in a fuel economy of 57 mpg [...]

Obama to Visit Smith Electric Truck Plant in Missouri, Highlight $32M Federal Grant

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In the United States, Smith Electric Vehicles—headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri—is a relatively obscure commercial electric truck builder that’s only been around for a few years. But in Europe, Smith Electric Vehicles UK has been building electric vehicles for more than 80 years. In fact, they are currently the largest manufacturer of commercial electric vehicles [...]

New Road Material Aids in Cleaning up Exhaust Pollution From the Air

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Here’s one for the thinking-out-of-the-box crowd. A research team at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands have invented a type of paving material that can be mixed in with normal asphalt or concrete that actually removes some pollutants from the air as cars travel over the surface. The effect works well enough [...]

Report: Volkswagen BlueSport Diesel Roadster Gets Green Light

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When the VW BlueSport was introduced as a concept car at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show over a year ago, the internet was abuzz with expectation that the car would see the light of day. It was clearly more than just another concept car and, unlike most concept cars, actually looked ready for production. At [...]

How to Build a Better Bridge? Portland, Oregon's Traffic Conundrum

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I am well over a month into my cross country journey, and one thing I have noticed is that there is traffic congestion everywhere. It doesn’t matter what state I’ve been in, I’ve run into traffic in all of them. Traffic sucks, and it is only getting worse. One of the cities I recently visited, [...]